Pakistan says killer gunmen based in Iran

The gunmen who killed 14 members of Pakistan’s security forces in the country’s southwest earlier this week came from Iran to carry out the attack, officials said Saturday.

Some 20 people wearing uniforms from the paramilitary Frontier Corps stopped buses in Balochistan province, which were traveling along the coast to megacity Karachi, before gunning down the security officials. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan had evidence the “terrorist outfits” that carried out the attack have “training and logistic camps inside Iranian areas bordering Pakistan”.

Those killed included ten serving with the navy, 3 with the air force and one with the coastguard. “We have shared this actionable evidence with Iran after due authentication and identified (the) location of the camps,” Qureshi said. Pakistan has created a new southern Frontier Corps with its headquarters in the southwestern city of Turbat to more effectively control its 950-kilometer long border with Iran, he said.

The construction of a fence along the border has already begun, he added. Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan’s poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there. “We have clearly told Iranian authorities about the elements involved in the attack”.

“Pakistan hopes they will take a swift action against the Baloch terrorist outfits,” Qureshi said, referring to his telephone conversation with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif